All posts by Eric

Hi John, we at the Belfast Model Flying Club fly indoors on a regular basis at 3 venues.

The Belfast Club has been on the go since 1945 and was initially a free flight and control line flying club. Today our base is still in Control Line flying but we also embrace the pleasure of calm conditions and heat at our indoor sessions.

On the second saturday of the month between September and April we can be found in the gym at our local school, Ashfield Girls School merrily flying a wide range of models. We fly in 15 min slots, roughly the length of 1 battery, Vapors, Heli’s, large 3D, small 3D. Our record for Vapors in the air at one time is 13, so keeping a close eye on your model was quite a challenge, and yes we did have a few members jiggling their sticks while following the wrong Vapor, however accidents were very few.

In the Heli session, I fly a Blade CP Pro 2 and like yourself acknowledge my limits with the heli kept in a reasonably close hover in front of me, I find this challenging enough. Other members fly a range of mini helis including a Lama, mCPs, mCPX etc.

The Large 3D section has a couple of members show off their abilities flying Click size models.

The small 3D brings out Cubs, 4site, Trojans, Extra 300.

We also fly on the 4th Monday of the month between September and April at Bloomfield Methodist Church Hall. Being a church hall and relatively small it really only lends itself to Vapors and Heliâs, however the flying gets in the way of the cup of tea, biscuit, chat and banter.

On a Wednesday morning a few members fly at a local small leisure centre but this session is entirely restricted to indoor free flight. While the hall is small with a reasonably low ceiling height the pilots have learned with practise to overcome the restrictions and have successful flying sessions,

Nearly 3 years ago it was suggested to us that we should have some accommodation at our flying site at Tommy Paton Park, something to protect our poor ageing bodies during periods of inclement weather and Oh Yes to protect our models also.

After much chat and âshould we or should we notâ discussion there came a time 2 years ago when we decided yes we should. Yellow pages and the Internet were trolled, suppliers visited and a suitable building sourced, no stopping us now . WRONG.

Just as we had got our ball rolling Belfast City Council were commissioning an audit of containers on Council owned property.

Again major discussion ensued ‘What do you want??’ ‘This is what you can have, is it suitable??’ ‘But our needs are this!!’ ’Well that’s not what we will accept, it must fall into this criteria.’

The ball was being well and truly bounced and the building we had sourced was no longer available , great sadness.

And so as one year rolled into the next, discussion, site meetings, plans drawn etc etc etc, the ball wasn’t bouncing quite so high. Suddenly the ball started rolling again, again Yellow Pages and the Internet were investigated and suppliers contacted and visited and lo and behold a suitable building was sourced and it fitted everyone’s criteria and everyone was happy, Oh joy our site hut was on its way. But then the ball slowed down and was barely moving.

Father Christmas came and went, 2013 arrived and all was quiet in the woods.

Thursday 7th February arrived as most days do in Northern Ireland, grey and overcast with heavy rain forecast.

At 0850 Maurice received a phone call. The building will be delivered to your site in about 45 minutes

ARGH.. lots of notice! NOPE.. Get yourself sorted, contact other members, get to the site to open it and upon arrival there waiting for us was the trailer with our Hanger sitting quietly waiting for us.

The attached pictures tell the tale of its delivery and positioning at our flying site and we are all trying to be the same Dwarf Happy.

This photograph of the Club assembled at the Boxing Day event at Newtonards Aerodrome in 1958 was provided by Derek Wilson, still active in the North Down Model Engineering Society in the Transport Museum, and scanned by John Black.

We are hoping to make contact with old members for the purpose of a Reunion get together sometime in 2012.

This year the weather was definitely on our side with good sunshine all day.

Control Line and Radio Control flying displays continued through the afternoon to enthral the public.

The static display of Radio Controlled Scale was fantastic with some lovely models proudly shown. This was also the Judging for the static section of the Northern Ireland radio scale competition which kept the judges busy all day.

This is now an annual, growing and important event in the calender of Northern Ireland aeromodelling.

The support of all those who gave up their time freely and helped with the success of this event is greatly appreciated.

The weather forecast was pretty dire, (this is taken direct from last yearâs Report!), but this time we managed it better by deciding to postpone from Saturday 20 to the following week. Thanks to the excellent communications provided by email and telephones, everyone was kept in the picture. Saturday 27 fortunately had excellent weather, with the added bonus that Stoo Holland was able to come along and boost the entry. Mitchell Shaw and John Black also came to Judge, and John Hamilton was moving very freely following his hip operation, so the turnout was very representative of F2B.

Â There were 4 entries in F2B, Stoo and Chris travelling from Dublin. Peter showed notable improvement in his scores over last year, as did Chris, and his first flight bettered Stoo’s individual scores, so everyone had something to show for their efforts. The competition between 1st and 2nd, and between 3rd and 4th, was pretty close. No-one had it easy.

Our thanks to everyone for coming along, particularly those travelling furthest, and making the day worthwhile, Mitchell and John B for judging, fortunately in pleasant conditions for once, and John H for Line Pulls.

You have found the home of the Belfast Model Flying Club. You can read about our club’s history on the History page. However, staying in the present, we would like to tell you a bit about our curent activities.

During the winter months September to April, we fly indoor models at Ashfield Girls School, Holywood Road and Bloomfield Methodist Church Hall. These models range from small radio helicopters, small and lightweight fixed wing radio (slow RC), to larger and faster fixed wing radio (fast RC) and Ultralight rubber (free flight).

When the weather is better, you can find us outside, winter and summer, on our very own dedicated control line site at Tommy Patton Park, Holywood Road, Belfast 5. The site has Irelands only purpose built competition control line circle and a second all purpose grass circle.

Control Line flying is our main activity, however many of our members also fly small unconventional RC aircraft and RC helicopters at the site. The site is not suitable for large RC models.

Come and join us for some fun and friendship. All we ask is you join a club to ensure you are covered by BMFA insurance.